Winning situation

As we move deeper into Lent and its emphasis on repentance, spiritual introspection, self-examination and self-denial, many of us choose to practice Lenten disciplines. If we have become involved in the season’s imagery and expectations, we may find ourselves reading biblical texts from a spare and minimalist perspective. When we read the familiar Lukan parable of the Prodigal Son, for example, we may be especially severe, heaping further epithets on the one we call prodigal: he is wasteful, we say, and reckless, dissolute, uncontrolled. If our spiritual resources are running low from our Lenten disciplines, and our emotions running close to the surface from the stress of fasting, we may identify with the elder brother. We cannot tolerate the young son’s abuse of a cherished inheritance.